Preserving the World's Reefs Through Photography

Catlin Seaview Survey A demo image of a diving site off the coast of Australia from the Catlin Seaview Survey. The SVII camera is suitably squidlike. It moves at a leisurely two and a half miles an hour through living corridors and rusted shipwrecks of the Coral Sea off Australia, snapping 360-degree photos every four to six seconds. This camera, at the nexus of a four-way partnership called the Catlin Seaview Survey , will visually document the composition and the health of the Great Barrier Reef along its full 1,500-mile span. Sponsored by the Catlin Group , the global insurance company, the survey is intended not only to gather data but also to strengthen scientific understanding of how climate change might affect ocean ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef. The mapping is to begin in September. Researchers hope that the stunning visuals will “bridge the gap between sc...